


Into the Mindscape

by Rina_Calavera



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: canon is my sandbox and this is my castle, decoded, rewrite of decoded, zane's brain is fried rn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23216668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rina_Calavera/pseuds/Rina_Calavera
Summary: When the ninja go into Zane's head, instead of cryptic puzzles and recaps, the ninja are faced with...cryptic puzzles and memories. Zane as they know him is nowhere to be found, while a strange being gives them only one clue as direction:"Find the key."
Kudos: 17





	1. Level Zero: Workshop

“His data is glitching – I think we’ll need to help him manually.”

Jay really hated not thinking things through. Who in their right mind thought uploading themselves into a nindroid’s glitchy programming was a good idea?

He stared in wonder at his surroundings. Nya had shown some weird puzzle box onscreen – so why was he in this dark –

“Who are you?”

He turned in surprise at the accusatory voice. “Huh? What are – who are you?”

A kid – an honest to FSM kid – stood in front of him angrily. “I believe I asked you first.” He insisted. Jay stared at him for a moment – simple clothes, messy blond hair, and intense blue eyes.

“I’m…Jay…” he replied slowly. “Who are you? Where am I? I was supposed to go into Zane’s memory banks…”

The kid straightened up. “Oh – this is Zane’s memory bank.” He stepped forward to Jay. His eyes were unnerving. “Are you here to help him?”

Jay nodded.

The kid smiled. “Good. Then I can assist you.” He grabbed Jay’s hand and tugged him along into the dark. “Are you one of Zane’s friends?” he asked.

“Yeah – I’m one of his teammates.” Jay responded. The kid’s eyes seemed to glow in the low light.

“I am glad you are here,” he said. “Zane needs friends – especially now.”

Jay stopped in alarm when the hand slipped out of his. “Where’d you go?” It was too dark to see. “Kid?”

“I cannot aid in this task,” the kid’s voice echoed around him. “Only you can do this – help Zane! Find the key – or all is lost, and we shall all be trapped here!”

Jay turned this way and that, but it was impossible to see where the kid had gone. He ran a nervous hand through his hair. “Jeez…that better not have been like, some stray program or something…” Sniffling caught his attention, and he warily moved forward in the dark.

“Kid?”

He stumbled back and swore at the harsh clang of metal colliding with his face. He fumbled in front of him and found a doorknob, and quickly opened it to low yellow artificial light.

And to an even younger, smaller kid, sitting on a thin rug surrounded by gears and stray wires.

“What the heeeeck – heck is going on here?” Jay caught himself, extra aware of his younger audience.

The child gasped and sat back. “Who are you?”

Jay found himself taking a second look at the room around him. Shelves haphazardly piled with parts, scrolls and scrolls of blueprints, a horribly messy worktable…it looked exactly like…”Dr. Julien’s workshop?” He wondered.

“You know where this is?”

He stared wide eyed at the child. “You’re – no way,” he shook his head. “Zane?”

“Is that my name?”

Jay knelt down next to him. “I…I think it is. You…” he took stock of the small frame in front of him. It didn’t make any sense, unless Dr. Julien built additional models through the years, but… “You look like him, at least.” He frowned. “Do you not know?”

Artificial tears welled up in his eyes. “I cannot remember.”

Jay swept him in a hug and shushed the tears. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “It’s okay.” He leaned back, holding Zane’s shoulders and looking him in the eye. “I remember, right?”

His small companion nodded tearfully. Jay nodded with him and gave him an encouraging smile. His eyebrows shot up as he scanned the room again. “And the kid from before said we needed to find a key…”

Zane perked up. “A key?” He wiggled out of Jay’s hands and sprung to his feet. He quickly crossed the room to the cluttered worktable. “I saw one – I think. I just,” he screwed up his eyes. “I cannot,”

“Remember…” Jay trailed off. “Memory! Of course! Come here, little Zane.” Zane returned to his spot on the rug. “Now, please don’t freak out, okay?” Gentle fingers pressed a small spot just under Zane’s jaw, opening a panel just below his shirt collar. Zane glanced between it and Jay with wide eyes.

“Wh-what is that?”

Jay ran his hands down his arms in a soothing motion. “It’s okay, little buddy, it’s okay. I think I can help you remember. I just need to look at that panel, okay?” Zane shakily nodded and unbuttoned his shirt. Jay sighed in relief as the panel opened fully, revealing a familiar, albeit much simpler, control panel.

With a memory switch turned to off.

“Hold still, buddy.” He flipped it on and sat back as Zane jolted. The room around them spun, the gears scattered on the floor flying up to hang on shelves and hooks around the room, the wires dashing off to follow them into drawers and organizers, and even the worktable’s chaotic contents hastily reorganized themselves, to Jay’s amazement.

As the world came to a halt, he turned back to the child in front of him. Zane was now buttoning his shirt back up, and there was an affirming fire in his blue eyes that Jay hadn’t seen before.

He met Jay’s look with a grim smile. “Thank you. And well done.”

Jay stared around the room in wonder as it slowly melted away into shadow, leaving him and Zane on the rug. “What’s going on?”

Blue eyes stared intensely at his own. “Zane needs your help. I was easy – a tutorial level, I believe you would call it.” Jay furrowed his eyebrows in concern. “But it will not be so easy from here on. I believe you will need help.”

“One of the others…” Jay murmured, and Zane nodded.

“At least.”

Both of them glanced down to where the child’s feet were fading into shadow, the rug having disappeared as they spoke.

He looked sharply at Jay.

“Get help. Get back. Get the key.”

Jay stared as the boy faded into nothing.


	2. Calling In Backup

“You did very well.”

Jay jumped as the same child from before stepped forward. “Kid!” He tilted his head in confusion. “Are you taller?”

“I am…improved, somewhat.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Great, thanks – listen, don’t run off on me like that! You’ll get…” He hummed. “Actually, I don’t know if it’s possible to get lost in here. I think so? Maybe you’ll like, fall into a memory or something. Which would suck…Zane has some nasty ones…” He shuddered.

The kid blinked. “I am not harmed by Zane’s memories.”

Jay rose to his feet and stretched. “Good, because oh boy has he been through it –“ He paused. “Zane’s memories? Who are you?”

He stared at Jay. “Did you find the key?”

“What – no I – agh!” Jay smacked a hand to his face. “I think I need help. How do I get out of here? I need to get one of the others.”

“You cannot get out without Zane.”

“I – what.”

“You can send a message. But until the key is found, there is no leaving.”

Jay gaped at the kid. “How…whatever. It doesn’t matter – I’ll just call Cole in here and we’ll find the key in no time. We’re the dream team! It’ll be easy.”

“Just you wait and,” Jay turned to the kid – or rather – the spot where the kid should be. “Oh come on!”

\------------------------

“So you sent Jay…into Zane’s brain…and now he needs me to go in too?”

Nya shrugged while she typed away at her console. “From what I can tell, yes. All I know is I got a weird file labeled ‘lightningninja.txt’ that asked for you to be uploaded in.” She turned to where Cole was nervously eyeing the wires and nodes attached to Jay’s unconscious form. “Don’t worry, it’ll be easy. In and out – once Zane’s fixed, I’ll pull you both right back here.”

Cole nodded with her.

“Easy.”


	3. Level Two: Rockslide

“Oh thank the first you’re here!” Cole blinked in the blank expanse around him. It was just…black…except for –

“Jay!”

Cole swept the smaller ninja up in a bone-creaking hug. “Okay, I’m here,” he set down a wheezing Jay. “What’s the plan?”

“You have to find the key.”

Cole jumped with a barely contained curse. “Jeez, where did you come from?!” Glaringly bright eyes stared at him.

Jay caught his breath behind him. “Oh yeah.” He gestured. “Cole, meet Creepy Mind Kid. Creepy Mind Kid, Cole.” He put a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “He says there’s some key we gotta get, I think I find the key, and boom! He still. Says. There’s. A Key.” He glared.

Cole glanced between Jay and the oddly silent kid. “Okay…” He looked around them. Still blank. “So what do we do?”

“Follow me. Find the key.”

Cole gently ignored Jay’s mumbled comments about where keys could possibly be found. “Where is it? Do you know?”

The kid shook his head. “I cannot find the key. It is…a safety measure…that I cannot bypass.”

Cole frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay…well where to then?”

“We are here.”

He turned in place, seeing only Jay. “Kid?”

“Find the key.”

“Where did he –“

“I hate when he does that.” Jay frowned next to him. “Come on, Cole – we need to keep walking. The memory or puzzle or whatever will load soon.”

Cole jogged beside Jay’s quick steps. “What are we looking for? What is this key thing?”

Jay shook his head. “I have no idea. Last time, it was just a memory switch – but that Zane said it was basically level zero.”

“Well that’s helpful,” Cole cut off with a grunt as he tripped over something and landed hard on – how were they standing on solid ground now? “What the…?”

“Sh-sh-sh!”

“Don’t shush me! I just fell!”

“Sh! I hear someone!”

Cole stilled and strained to hear what Jay did. “How is it the guy who routinely blows himself up doesn’t have hearing damage?”

“You’re the one who blasts soft rock 24/7. Now – here!” Jay motioned Cole over to a pile of rock. “Do you hear that?”

Cole’s eyes widened. “Rockslide,” he whispered. “Jay, help me – carefully – move these.” Jay nodded and set to work, Cole carefully raising stalagmites as support as they went. Both froze at the small hand they uncovered, before continuing twice as fast, eventually pulling out a small blonde boy.

“Zane?” Cole breathed. This Zane was still thin, but older than the one Jay had described. “Buddy, can you hear me?”

Blue eyes screwed shut before opening wide. “What – I – father?”

Cole shook his head. “No, we’re not your dad, buddy. What happened?”

Zane shook his head before wincing and laying back down with a whine. “I do not – I can not remember…”

Cole glanced at Jay, who shook his head. “He has long-term memory of his dad. This isn’t a memory switch issue.” He offered a comforting hand to the small nindroid. “I don’t know what the fix is here.”


End file.
